Fiat justitia, ruat coelum.

Shooting leaves one dead in OTR

By: Kevin Thomas ~Staff Writer~

Photo courtesy of presbyteryofcincinnati.org | A shooting left one dead and one injured at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen in Over-the-Rhine Monday morning.

A man was killed and a woman was hospitalized following a shooting at a soup kitchen in Over-The-Rhine (OTR) Monday morning. Georgine Getty, the director of Our Daily Bread, estimated that there were around 150 in the building at the time of the shooting.

While fights occasionally break out at the soup kitchen, nothing of this level has ever occurred, according to the staff of Our Daily Bread.

“We try to be vigilant,” Lakshmi Sammarco, a Hamilton County coroner, said, “but you can’t predict situations like this, no matter how hard you try.”

The alleged shooter, Robert Jacobs, was taken into custody shortly after the incident and charged with murder and felonious assault. The victim, 28-year-old Deante Mattocks, was dead before police arrived, but the female victim, who has yet to be identified, is expected to make a full recovery, according to WCPO Cincinnati.

“There was no incident in the apprehension [of Jacobs],” Lt. Steve Saunders, one of the responding officers, said. “He was cooperating, submitting to his arrest.”

Staff members at Our Daily Bread, which is located across the street from Findlay Market, worked to evacuate the building as soon as they realized what was happening.

“I heard the first pop and I thought it was just somebody stepping on a bag or something,” Garland Butts, the head chef at the soup kitchen, said, “and then I looked up, and I see the guy waving the gun in the air. Everybody ran back towards the kitchen where we were. Me and two other coworkers and we were just trying to get people out. People were just running out the back door.”

The shooting caused streetcar service to be temporarily stopped due to the heavy presence of police blocking the streets, though all was back to normal within a few hours.

The soup kitchen’s staff released a statement later in the day saying that the shooting is believed to be the result of a domestic dispute between Jacobs and the two victims, according to WCPO. It also said that the kitchen would be closed for several days “to regroup as a staff and work with the police and security experts to increase [their] building safety.”